Just full of surprises

SINCE arriving in Hollywood from his native Canada 11 years ago, Colin Ferguson has been working steadily in films and television. He may not be a household name, but his face is familiar from his many guest-starring roles on such sitcoms as "Becker," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Girlfriends" and "Teachers" as well as dramatic shows such as "Cover Me" and "Crossing Jordan."

The personable 34-year-old actor, who starred in the ill-fated 2003 NBC sitcom "Coupling," headlines the Sci Fi channel's new series "Eureka," which airs Tuesday evenings on the cable network.

In the offbeat sci-fi comedy, Ferguson plays the charming, street-smart U.S. Marshal Jack Carter, who works in the seemingly all-American town of Eureka. But the picture-perfect burg is not what it seems -- the secret hamlet in the Pacific Northwest is home to America's greatest thinkers and geniuses, there to work on their experiments in a supportive environment.

But experiments often go wrong, and geniuses tend to have as many problems as the average Joe, so Carter finds himself solving unusual cases. The newly separated Carter must also deal with his unruly teenage daughter, who lives with him.

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What was the "Coupling" experience like for you? NBC so hyped the comedy, but it didn't even last a season.

The funny thing about that is that people forgot at the end of the day it's just a sitcom. It did amazingly out of the gate, but the expectations were so high I just don't think anything could have held up to what they were hoping for. I have got to say that "Coupling" was such a good experience from the beginning to the end. None of us ever, ever bought [the hype]. It was good exposure, and we all moved on.

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"Eureka" is a lot of fun because it's quirky and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously.

I had done a bunch of sitcoms and some movies of the week, and I was looking for something that, if I was going to get into it for a long period of time, I could have scenes that were comedic and dramatic. And it was actually lucky that it was on a network that was going to nurture it and let it grow.

I have sort of been surprised that a lot of the feedback is that kids watch it with their parents. We assumed that, OK, we're on the Sci Fi channel, it's going to be culty, it's going to be fringy. We didn't have any idea that we were making a show that everybody could watch.

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Did the producers of "Eureka" approach you about the series?